Local lawmakers cold on federal gun proposals

Wednesday

Jan 16, 2013 at 7:02 PM

BATON ROUGE — President Barack Obama wants Congress to adopt the most sweeping gun control policies proposed in more than two decades, but the lawmakers who represent Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes are at best reluctant.

Jeremy AlfordCapitol Correspondent

BATON ROUGE — President Barack Obama wants Congress to adopt the most sweeping gun control policies proposed in more than two decades, but the lawmakers who represent Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes are at best reluctant. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Metairie, said the president shouldn’t have started his policy campaign by signing 23 executive orders that were used to, among other things, trigger new gun violence research, increase the federal data used in background checks and appoint a permanent director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.Executive orders, unlike legislation, can be issued without approval by Congress.“Bypassing Congress to implement radical policies is never acceptable, and it’s particularly heinous when such actions trample on the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the Bill of Rights,” Scalise said. He also questioned the constitutionality of Obama’s planned legislation to establish a universal background check, bringing in gun shows and Internet sales, and ban assault weapons. The plan, developed by a task force overseen by Vice President Joe Biden, is estimated to cost up to $500 million, including the executive orders. “Efforts to restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans will only punish those who play by the rules and will be ignored by criminals who break the law,” Scalise said. “This radical attempt by the Obama administration to unilaterally rewrite the Constitution will launch our nation down a slippery slope as the White House shows a dangerous disregard for the rights and freedoms guaranteed to every American.”Obama’s announcement comes roughly one month after a deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said if the goal of Obama’s package is to prevent such shootings — and others that preceded it such as the tragedies at Virginia Tech and in Aurora, Colo., and Tucson, Ariz. — then the president’s proposals should address the root causes. “The crimes at Virginia Tech and Tucson did not involve assault weapons,” he said. “The Sandy Hook weapons were purchased by a law-abiding citizen who would have passed a background check.”If there is a common thread throughout all of the shootings, said Cassidy, a physician, it is untreated mental illness. “Funding for mental illness is often misused and ineffective,” he said. “If we are serious, this should be our focus.”That’s the route being taken by Gov. Bobby Jindal, who plans on backing related legislation in this year’s regular session of the legislature. Jindal wants the state to report to the federally administered National Instant Criminal Background Check System database of an individual’s eligibility to purchase firearms based on mental-health records.“Too often, both in Louisiana and in states across the nation, the mentally ill are slipping through the cracks and getting lost in the system,” the governor said. “In order to protect these individuals and the communities they reside in, it is imperative that we take proactive steps to prevent them from harming either themselves or others.”The federal government operates the NICS database to prevent potential gun buyers with a criminal history or severe mental health illness from purchasing firearms.Seventeen states already have laws that require courts to report mental-health eligibility to the NICS, Jindal said.Obama and Biden said they might take their policy package on the road to help drum up support. “No one can know for certain if this senseless act could have been prevented, but we all know we have a moral obligation — a moral obligation — to do everything in our power to diminish the prospect that something like this could happen again,” the vice president said Wednesday. Aside from the centerpiece proposals affecting background checks and assault weapons, the administration’s package is expected to include bills to totally ban armor-piercing bullets, limit high-capacity magazines, increase prosecutorial authority, enhance mental health treatment and add new resources in schools, such as officers, counselors and emergency-response plans. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Metairie, said Obama should be asking himself whether his package will infringe on the constitution and whether it will truly reduce violence.“If Obama himself asked these questions, I think we’d be hearing a lot more about school security, mental-health intervention and voluntary anti-violence standards for Hollywood and its video game industry,” Vitter said. The president’s package does not include any new guidelines for movies, video games or other media.Citing support for constitutional protections for guns, Sen. Mary Landrieu, a New Orleans Democrat, said lawmakers should find a way to draft policies that encompass a spectrum of all concerns. “We must find a way to balance our Second Amendment rights with the challenges of mental illness, criminal behavior and the safety of our schools and communities,” she said. “We must also enforce the rules already on the books. Even some of the most respected law-enforcement leaders in our country are calling for common sense reforms because of this terrible violence in our communities.”According to the Associated Press, the president also signed executive orders Wednesday to: n Order tougher penalties for people who lie on background checks and require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.n End limits that make it more difficult for the government to research gun violence, such as gathering data on guns that fall into criminal hands.n Require federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations.n Give schools flexibility to use federal grant money to improve school safety, such as by hiring school-resource officers.n Give communities grants to institute programs to keep guns away from people who shouldn’t have them.